Most of the local freebies stick to the major towns, and not the whole of the councils area, so that wouldn't cover it!

Alas our local tv channel won't be a suitable channel for either of the two councils here as it won't cover all of them!

Sorry Ray but Channel M lost money throughout its life. As a result the buyer of MEN didn't want it. Its programes were given equal prominence to the main 5 channels in the MEN TV guide but still no one watched it, in fact I never met a viewer. It had reasonable breakfast and evening news shows but they were in direct competition with those on Granada and BBC Northwest, the rest was amateurish rubbish. In this multichannel world they just didn't cut the mustard.
Local TV isn't like a loss making broadsheet newspaper, there is no kudos in owning a station, it must make a profit or die.
Channel M went off air at digital switchover and didn't return for several months, it then switched from QPSK to 16 QUAM slashing its coverage.
The current "Manchester multiplex" has, as far as I can tell, has no viewers whatsoever. Both picture quality and content are dreadful.

GMG were selling a newspaper group to a newspaper group. Of course they didn't want a TV station. Like when GMG sold a radio group to a radio group. As a business it just stuck out like a sore thumb in the portfolio. Unless they could find someone to take it on directly, they couldn't just 'bundle it in' with another, unrelated business.

Equal prominence in a newspaper is not the same as equal prominence in an EPG. I met numerous viewers, the music shows in particular were very popular, they had bands all over the UK wanting to be on.

Citation Needed. You're just stating personal opinion there. Unless you're knocking on the doors of every house in Greater Manchester conducting a survey?

As an ex-employee of ITV I can see that you might view the output of the station as amateurish rubbish. Or in the case of the staff in your newsroom who viewed the news output as serious competition. But the judges at the NW RTS thought differently.

Ours cover a pretty large area. anyway the fact is very few people want the magazine and they see it as a waste of money.


I doubt we will ever get one and if we do it will go belly up in a few months.

I don't think any of the analogue RSLs turned a profit. They were encumbered with out-of-group frequencies, low power and transmitter sites that were less than optimal. The licences themselves were only short-term, and the ITC happily put them back out to tender rather than renewing them.

The majority didn't even get on air. Channel M did very well in comparison, and at least managed to (albeit barely) survive DSO.

The new batch should be in a much better position, with BBC funding, better coverage from the same transmitter as the rest of the Freeview service, and a prominent EPG position. In return they have programming commitments to meet, so the channels should be better quality overall (and get more viewers as a result).

I wouldn't say the Manchester Multiplex has no viewers, I've noticed quite a few shops and the gym I go to usually has Capital FM TV on in the reception. Plus Capital did have a bit of an ad campaign that they are available on Freeview in Manchester (we occasionally have it on at home, as it's not available via Virgin)

So which new local tv channel is likely to go live first? and when? (sorry if this has been answered above!).

I don't think it'll be Made in Bristol because they've put back their launch date until at least autumn this year. You can look through the applications here http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/tv-bro.../local/awards/ but it's anyone's guess whether they'll be able to meet the Ofcom-required predicted start date.

thanks Tvuser

Mustard TV is already operating a limited service online.

http://www.mustardtv.co.uk/home

To be fair, they are on Sky too, it's quite possible you were watching it off satellite.

Collated list here: http://www.terrestrialtv.co.uk/localtv
Match it up with the mux schedule: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...&postcount=328

Taking Cardiff with a pinch of salt, it'll probably be NvTv.

When Comux's technical plan is finalised, the channel start dates will get written into the licences, so we'll know for sure then. Realistically, all the capitals are likely to be ready to go as soon as the mux is switched on or shortly after, and I can't see Comux moving the capitals back in favour of other areas.

I'm pleased London along with other cities in the UK is finally getting a local tv channel but I do feel its a shame the capital couldn't get their local tv channel on air in time for the olympics. Think what a London local tv channel would've done with that.

And will anyone watch it or even know about it? People may watch it to start with, but I think most will stop pretty quickly unless the channel is interesting and not a channel tuck in a loop, which I think a lot of them will be.


Transmitting cost a lot of money, maybe best to use the internet only , a lot cheaper.

Made In Leeds is the winner of the Leeds licence. That 4 wins for Jamie Conway's Made Television. Due on air on Freeview and cable in November.

made has moped up the 7 estuary &
more or less the east penines. Just a shame no local license won

Can't help but feel Made in Tyne and Wear will flop when you've already got a dominant Sky Tyne and Wear platform alongside usual local stuff.

??? This is a local licence.

Made is a larger group, but each channel is a separate channel with a local base and local programming. If they weren't, there's no way Ofcom would have awarded the group four licences. The local programming commitments will be written into the licence too, so if they try to "nationalise" the services, a la ITV, they'll get a slap from the regulator.

I daresay there will be a fair bit of cross-pollination between their channels, especially the neighbouring ones (eg. Cardiff and Bristol are close enough together for some of one channel's programmes to be relevant to the other, the signal even overlaps a bit), but to say they aren't local is unfair.

Can you get Sky Tyne and Wear on your TV? It looks like it's just a website with some videos on it.

Some of their schedule implies that programming will be bought in from elsewhere, and also shared between the stations. Pretty much the yank model right there - Jeremy Hunt will be happy. They probably stand a better chance of survival as part of a small group.

Wonder if this means Your Preston & Blackpool and Your Liverpool will be next - to feed off the obvious synergies with Your Manchester?

No it's not on TV but it's got a fairly strong presence and I know a hell of a lot of people use it.

WHen we're in this digital age it's hard to imagine people turning to a TV channel run by the same people who read the awful local newspaper, Evening Chronicle, which itself is seeing its readership literally die off

Not much of a viable overlap - both Wenvoe and Mendip will transmit their respective services on the same UHF channel.

Only a tiny overlap perhaps where Wenvoe and Bristol Kings Weston can be received - bearing in mind that the local TV signal from Wenvoe shouldn't reach the English side of the Severn Estuary because of Mendip, I would think it would perhaps just be possible on the Welsh side if a household had two aerials - one at Wenvoe and one vertical aerial at Kings Weston - possibly unlikely/ unviable.

That's up to Ofcom, and they consider them separately, not on the basis of other applications the company may or may not have made. I'd say YourTV Preston is a given (the only other bidder is Metro8, and only one of their applications so far has had positive comments from Ofcom - unless they've done something very special, or YourTV have done something very stupid, it's unlikely they will win).

The Liverpool one has a lot more competition. Bay TV might have a slight edge as they appear to have a web-based sevice already (but I've not read the applications)


Ah, didn't realise that, I was working from the coverage maps, which predict the signal crossing the Bristol Channel in both directions, slightly. Anyway, the point I was trying to make still stands.

I know quite a few people in Newcastle and it's never cropped in conversation.

The newspaper companies and radio stations in these bids are usually partners that provide the news content and/or office space. Partnering with the local media like that strikes me as the best way to provide the news element of the licence, especially when they're just starting out.

A bit of local competiton is always good, and the ability to watch local news without having to fire up your laptop seems preferable to me.

A lot houses in Cardiff and Newport have aerials pointing at Mendip just to get Ch4. Digital switchover if course solved the S4/C Channel 4 issue but people are yet to get up on the roof and swing the aerial round.